JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon was speaking at an event alongside Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon and BlackRock’s Larry Fink when he reiterated his stance on work from office. Dimon said that he is not making fun of the videoconferencing application Zoom, but believes that people “learned a little bit from the apprentice system”.
‘Not making fun of Zoom, but…’
“I’m not making fun of Zoom, but younger people are being left behind,” he said at the Future Investment Initiative.
Dimon argued, “Mentorship, sales training, and error management are parts of the professional learning process that are missing from remote work.”
“If you look back at your careers, you learned a little bit from the apprentice system. You were with other people who took you on a sales call or told you how to handle a mistake or something like that. It doesn’t happen when you’re in a basement on Zoom,” he further said.
His comments came days after 2,000 employees signed a petition for a hybrid work model – one that was in place at the bank for years now. The petition, which was sent to his desk, was in response to the company’s return-to-office policy.
The petition, launched in January, called the decision to end hybrid work a “great leap backwards”. It added that the move would harm “employees, customers, shareholders, and the firm’s reputation”.
In February this year, he dismissed the petition, saying that he didn’t care how many employees had signed it and that anyone unwilling to return to the office could find another job.
“I’ve had it with this stuff. I’ve been working seven days a goddamn week since COVID, and I come in, and – where is everybody else?” he had said earlier this year.
Who is Jamie Dimon?
Jamie Dimon is the Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase. He joined the company in 2004 as the President and CEO. He rose through the ranks over the years and became the Chairman of the board in 2006 – a position he has held for 19 years straight.
Prior to joining JPMorgan Chase, he served as the Chairman and CEO of Bank One for over four years.
Dimon graduated from Tufts University in 1978 and earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1982.